Enhance the power supply capabilities of the PICkit with this external 3.3V/5V supply. The standard supply in the PICkit will only supply 1.8-5V and 30 mA when using the USB connection, while this external supply is selectable between 3.3V/5V, and the LM317 regulator can supply 1.5A. This can be handy if you have more than a few LEDs in your project. The input voltage can vary quite a bit, but must be greater than 6.5V to achieve 5V out. The input capacitor must also be rated for your input V if you choose to use higher V

Microchip Technology Inc has introduced a PIC32 Bluetooth starter kit. The kit includes a board with a PIC32 microcontroller, HCI-based Bluetooth radio, Cree high-output multi-color LED, 3 standard single-color LEDs, an analog 3-axis accelerometer, analog temperature sensor and 5 push buttons for user-defined inputs. In addition the PICkit™ On Board (PKOB) eliminates the need for an external debugger/programmer and supports USB connectivity and GPIOs for rapid development of Bluetooth Serial Port Profile (SPP), USB and general-purpose applications. To support Bluetooth audio the starter kit also includes an interface for a plug-in audio CODEC daughter card set for release at a later stage.

PICkit 2 was originally built by Microchip as open design programmer with the schematic, source code and firmware available to boost the popularity of the PIC devices. Because of that it is easy to build a clone version of the original device. Most of the clones will produce unregulated 5 volt VPP where the original Microchip PICkit 2 provides adjustable VPP output to allow 3.3 and 2.5 volt parts programming. The schematic I have used is based on the original PICkit 2 without programmer-to-go functionality. That functionality allowing a hex file to be downloaded to the PICkit 2 to later program PIC microcontrollers without a PC with a simple pressing programmer’s push button. I do not think that functionality is required for a hobbyist but allows simplify the schematic by omitting two 24C512 EEPROM chips. The Eagle Files designed using only thru-hole mounting parts.

Recently I was fortunate to receive a Microchip PICkit 2 from Newark.com to write a review on. I was very excited to get it because I have always wanted to learn about PIC microcontrollers. Why? Well, so far I have been quite experienced with Atmel’s AVR family chips, thanks to the Arduino that first got me into electronics. But it’s time to try something new in a new year PICs offer several nice appeals including their product variety and functionality (e.g. support for USB, Ethernet, touch sensing etc.) and they have very competitive pricing. I know there are tons of debates about AVRs vs. PICs online. For now I am going to put them aside and make my own comparisons later after I get a good grip of both.

Sure Electronics starred carrying PICKIT 3 programmer/debugger clones. Chr bought one and wrote a in-depth review of this product. [via]

Some time ago there was this blog post about the PICkit 2 clone. A few weeks ago I bought the PICkit 3 clone from the same manufacturer – here is my experience with it.Until then my experience with PIC programmers was a homebuilt JDM serial programmer (about a decade ago…) and a loaned Microchip ICD 3 that I used for an uni project.

First impression

This clone is really cheap – I could get about two for the price of a single genuine Microchip PICkit 3. Nevertheless it comes in a sturdy box and includes both a single row 6-pin female to female and a 6-pin modular connector ICSP cable. There’s also a 1×6 pin male header, a right-angle 1×6 female header and the Mini-USB cable included.

The PICkit™ 2 Programmer/Debugger is a low-cost development tool with an easy to use interface for programming and debugging Microchip’s Flash families of microcontrollers. The full featured Windows programming interface supports baseline, mid-range, PIC18,8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontrollers, and many Microchip Serial EEPROM products. With Microchip’s powerful MPLAB Integrated Development Environment (IDE) the PICkit 2 enables in circuit debugging on most PIC microcontrollers. In-Circuit-Debugging runs, halts and single steps the program while the PIC microcontroller is embedded in the application. When halted at a breakpoint, the file registers can be examined and modified.